This invention relates to audiovisual display systems, and more particularly to fully interactive audiovisual systems useful for tutorial, testing, and a variety of other applications.
The prior art in the area of audiovisual display systems is quite extensive, and includes an impressive number of alternative aproaches, both in terms of ultimate function and in terms of realization of that end. For example, some machines are directed to testing, evaluation, and monitoring of various decision and performance skills, whereas others are directed to guiding students through programmed learning routines. Likewise, some systems are extremely complex in their logical execution and display apparatus, whereas others include rather limited and unsophisticated mechanical controls or rudimentary audio or visual presentation means. In accordance with applicant's understanding, however, none of the prior art is totally satisfactory from the standpoint of all important structural, functional, and cost considerations.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide interactive audiovisual display apparatus which as nearly as possible satisfies all of the various requirements desirable for such systems. These general requirements and objects of the present invention include: provision for a high degree of realism and fidelity; flexibility in preparation and programming; ease of updating and modification of testing and learning programs; ease of operation by relatively unsophisticated users; technical, mechanical, and electronic reliability; computer management capability; physical portability; and acceptable operation rates.
While at first blush these requirements appear relatively unconflicting and therefore easy to realize, more detailed consideration shows them to be otherwise. For example, ultimate clarity of presentation requires facility for audio, moving picture video (e.g., film or videotape), and still video (e.g., slides). At the same time flexibility in preparation must take into account the possibility of multiple branching interactive programs, with plural options or decisions at every stage thereof. Indeed, it is not unreasonable to require a system to have a capability of handling three hundred individual interactions per program, with video segments running variously between 5 and 30 seconds each, and as many as 6 or 7 user options per interaction. Yet, for the system to be at all workable, access time for each decision must be reasonably short, and continuity for the user must be maintained reasonably throughout the program.
While these requirements most probably can be handled with reasonable facility by multipurpose digital computers with sophisticated, appropriately designed software systems, the economic and physical size considerations thereof prove entirely unworkable. Thus, design considerations for a truly useful system involve tender compromises between access time, programming flexibility, and unavoidable physical and economic realities. Embodiments of the present invention are intended to meet those requirements, and to fulfill them in a fashion superior to that accomplished in accordance with the prior art.